Odyssey 3.46 · Book 3, lines 46–48
'All men have need of the gods'
Read the full text in our reader
δὸς καὶ τούτῳ ἔπειτα δέπας μελιηδέος οἴνου σπεῖσαι, ἐπεὶ καὶ τοῦτον ὀίομαι ἀθανάτοισιν εὔχεσθαι· πάντες δὲ θεῶν χατέουσʼ ἄνθρωποι.
give also, then, to this man the cup of honey-sweet wine to pour a libation, since he too, I think, prays to the immortals; and all men have need of the gods.
Word by word
The setting
Peisistratus keeps speaking, arranging for the younger guest (Telemachus) to receive the cup after the elder. χατέω 'to have need of' takes a genitive — θεῶν, 'of the gods.'
A note on this passage
The instruction rounds itself off with a maxim. Give the second guest the cup as well, Peisistratus says, for surely he prays too — and then the general truth that carries the whole scene: all men have need of the gods. A courtesy about who drinks next is grounded in a statement about the human condition.
The line 'all men have need of the gods' is the quiet floor under the poem's whole world of hospitality and prayer. It is why the stranger at the door is sacred, why libations come before meals, why even a king's son pauses to see that a nameless guest gets his turn to worship. Homer sets the reflex of good manners on a foundation of shared human dependence — and does it in the voice of a boy, plainly.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 3.46 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
From the Great Library
You are reading a page of the Odyssey — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Odyssey 3.46 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/3.46/